Application of a biopsychosocial approach, as a scientific model, to explain specific phobia

Question 1

Define stress

Answer 1

A state of physiological arousal produced by internal or external stressors that are perceived by the individual as challenging or exceeding their ability or resources to cope.

Question 2

Define anxiety

Answer 2

Is a state of physiological arousal associated with feeling of uncertainty, worry or unease that something is wrong or that something unpleasant will happen

Question 3

Define specific phobia

Answer 3

Is a mental disorder characterized by significant anxiety which is provoked by exposure to a specific fears stimulus, where the dear is intense and irrational and often leads to avoidance behavioral.

Question 4

Define phobic stimulus

Answer 4

Specific object, event or situation that causes the fear response.

Question 5

Biological factors

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Answer 5

• Is primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in CNS, making the postsynaptic neuron less likely to fire
• The inhibitory action of GABA conteracts the excitatory action of glutamate and GABA interacts with glutamate to regulate bodily arousal.

Question 6

Biological factors

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Answer 6

• Activates stress response that is involuntary and similar to the flight- fight - freeze response (adrenaline rush) - physiological processes
• these symptoms associated with phobic anxiety ie dizziness
• The main issue with phobic anxiety experienced can be excessive, even when the phobic stimulus may not be present. ie just thinking about it

Question 7

Biological factors

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Answer 7

• Consolidated/ strengthened each time the patient thinks about their phobic stimulus and associates it with their fear response
• Making it easier for these pre- and post- neuron to connect again in the future and ignite the patient’s memory of the fear to which the phobic stimulus is linked. -less likely to forget

Question 8

Psychological factors

Precipitation by classical conditioning

Answer 8

-Phobias are established or developed (precipitated) through classical conditioning.
A situation or event would naturally induce fear (UCS) is associated with a NS until the NS becomes a phobic/CS and comes to be associated with the conditioned phobic dear response CR ie little albert

Question 9

Psychological factors

Perpetuation (maintaining phobia) by operant conditioning

Answer 9

ie a boy hates spiders so he may avoid them. this gives him relief which acts as negative reinforcement so he may be more incline to avoid spiders in the future.

Question 10

Psychological factors

Cognitive bias

• Memory bias
• Catastrophic thinking

Answer 10

• is the tendency to recall or recognize negative or threatening information better than positive or neural information.
• is the tendency to perceive objects or events as being far more threatening than they really are and that encountering it will result in the worst possible outcome. Also people underestimate their ability to take hold over the phobia and cope with their situation.

Question 11

Social factors

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Answer 11

-Refers top specific objects or situations in the environment that caused or triggered an extreme fear response at some point in time.
-The initial fear response to a specific environmental trigger becomes a conditioned fear response through classical conditioning process and this CR is produced whenever the specific stimulus is encountered
-Prior experiment; person who exposure to the object or situation after the negative or traumatic situation occurs. ie car crash
; or a person who has ie grown up with dogs is less likely to develop a phobia of them if they are bitten

Question 12

Biological interventions

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Answer 12

• Are a group of drugs used in management of phobic anxiety (calms down the body by reducing physiological arousal and promoting relaxation)
• Imitate and stimulate the activity of GABA at the site of a post-synaptic neuron
• GABA levels can also increase naturally ie green tea or seafood etc.

Question 13

Biological interventions

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Answer 13

• Patients may hyperventilate, increasing the patient’s anxiety even further and can contribute to an anxiety attack.
• Breathing retraining is an intervention that attempts to correct breathing patterns in specific phobia patients to promote relaxation and reduce anxiety symptoms.

Question 14

Biological interventions

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Answer 14

• Releases neurotransmitters associated with good mood and calmness
• Increases one’s tolerance to stress-related physiological symptoms
• Distracts the persons from their phobic stimulus

Question 15

Psychological interventions

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

Answer 15

combines cognitive and behavioural strategies to help people manage thoughts, feelings and actions surrounding anxiety symptoms associated with their specific phobia.

Question 16

Psychological interventions

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
Cognitive components of CBT
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Answer 16

• aims to change a persons irrational or negative way of thinking so they can better cope with the way they process information about their phobic stimulus
• sometimes peoples fears are cause of a lack of knowledge- so further education on the phobic stimulus may be provided from CBT

Question 17

Psychological interventions

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
Cognitive components of CBT process

Answer 17

• Address irrational thought by helping the person identify their negative or unhelpful thoughts
• Carefully examine each thought and then to evaluate how realistic or helpful it is for their phobia
• Its essential to do this as such thoughts can actually exacerbate anxiety symptoms and maintain phobia.

Question 18

Psychological interventions

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
Behavioural component of CBT

Answer 18

involves using behavioural strategies that will help to reduce the anxiety that the patient has regarding the phobic stimulus.

Question 19

Psychological interventions

systematic desenitisation

Answer 19

involves presenting successive approximations of the CS until the CS itself does not produce the CR

Question 20

Psychological interventions

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Answer 20

• Client is taught relaxation technique which they use to decrease the physiological symptoms of anxiety
• Anxiety producing object or situation is broken down into a sequence or a fear hierarchy.
• Each event or situation in the fear hierarchy is systematically paired with relaxation by working upwards through the hierarchy.

Question 21

Social interventions

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Answer 21

• Psycoeducation is providing information about a mental disorder to a patient to increase their understanding of their condition as well as treatment options
• Patients who are well-informed about their condition can cope more effectively (challenge unrealistic thoughts)

Question 22

Social interventions

Challenging unrealistic or anxious thoughts

Answer 22

Parents/guardians can break down a negative thought about a phobic stimulus, we can increase the reasoning behind the patients fear and help them to understand that there is no major danger

Question 23

Social interventions

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Answer 23

• Phobias are maintained through avoidance
• One way avoidance behaviours can be discouraged is through modelling approach behaviours ie mother doesnt scream when sees spider
• Another more effective and direct way of not encouraging avoidance behaviour is to explicitly teach the patient that their dear of the phobic stimulus is irrational - important to reward or positively reinforce them ie with lolly

Question 24

Psychological interventions

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Answer 24

• Involves exposing the person to increasingly similar stimulus
• Thus applies classical conditioning, in a process that involves unlearning the association between anxiety and a specific object/situation and re learning feelings of relaxation.